Publish final Assam NRC by July 31, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court made it clear on Wednesday that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will have to be out by July 31 next in Assam.

Reports stated that the top court said there will be no extension of deadline and Assam NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela was given “free hand” by the top court to deal with claims and objections.

A bench comprising chief justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi and Justice RF Nariman said that Hajela could “go ahead on his own” vis-à-vis dealing with claims and objections of persons against wrong inclusion or exclusion of citizens from the citizens’ register.

The apex court directive came following Hajela informing the bench that many people who had complained about the inclusion of names of certain individuals in the draft NRC are now not appearing before the panels which deals with such complaints.

The final draft Assam NRC was published on July 30, 2018. In the final draft NRC, out of the 3.29 crore people, the names of 2.89 crore people were included.

The names of 40 lakh people did not appear in the draft NRC. Of these, 2,48,077 are on hold, and 37,59,630 names have been rejected.